Tornadoes buzz the Twin Cities

Nomaan Merchant, Associated Press

Published 1:11 am, Tuesday, September 1, 2009

MINNEAPOLIS -- Several possible tornadoes were spotted along the Minnesota-Wisconsin border on Wednessday, including one near downtown Minneapolis where winds shattered windows and tore off part of a 90-year-old metal church steeple.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings covering counties that include Minneapolis and St. Paul. There were reports of a possible tornado north of downtown, and another sighting about 60 miles east in Emerald, Wis.

Meteorologist Dan Luna said it was the sort of storm that meteorologists dread -- it didn't look dangerous until it was.

"We worry about the really benign thunderstorm that develops a tornado in the metropolitan area," Luna said. "These sort-lived ones form very quickly and dissipate very fast. They are very hard to predict."

Luna said the weather service had only confirmed one tornado near Hastings, about 30 miles southeast of Minneapolis where a 100-yard long swath of trees was flattened. He said crews would evaluate the damage in downtown Minneapolis to see if there were more.

Strong winds struck without warning near the heart of downtown Minneapolis early Wednesday afternoon, toppling trees and blowing away large outdoor tents and chairs set up for the national Evangelical Lutheran Church in America convention.

Jack Freitag, of Brooklyn Center, was standing in the church lobby when he saw "a wall cloud from the south coming across the parking lot."

Freitag said he then heard a "very loud roar" and saw signs being blown around in the wind.

"I was worried about the people then," said Freitag, who told everyone to seek shelter in the church's basement. No one was injured.

At the Electric Fetus, a landmark independent music store near downtown Minneapolis, strong winds shattered one of the store's windows and caused the roof to cave in.

"It was just the loudest crashing noise," said Stephanie Covart, the store's co-owner. "We didn't know what was happening."

Nearby, a glass panel on a bus shelter was shattered, with scattered pieces of glass on the sidewalk.

Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak toured the area later Wednesday where the storm hit to assess damage. He saw a hole in the Minneapolis Convention Center's roof that caused water to leak in. Although there were many reports of downed trees and property damage south of downtown, there were no reports of injuries, city officials said in a statement.

"It obviously had a significant physical impact but at this point it looks as if we're very fortunate there were relatively few injuries," Rybak said.

First responders were going house-to-house in the area looking for victims.

Lisa Kiava, spokeswoman for the Hennepin County sheriff's office, said fire officials trained to spot tornadoes reported seeing one near Interstate 35W and Lake Street in Minneapolis. Tornado sirens were activated for the city and went off at 2:12 p.m.

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Associated Press writers Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis and Brian Bakst in St. Paul, Minn. contributed to this report.